sports

the sport is conducted. The International Shooting Sport

Federation (ISSF) is the governing body of the sport and

it lays down all the rules for the sport.

The 10m Air Pistol Men event is conducted in standing

position with the target being placed at a distance of 10

metres from the shooter. The shooters have to reload

the pistol after each shot as pistols are single-loaded.

The qualification round consists of 60 shots while in the

elimination-style final, athletes can shoot a maximum of

20 shots.

Following the athletes’ presentation, the final begins with

2 series of 5 shots where each series must be fired in 250

seconds. After the first 2 series, a maximum of 14 single

shots can be fired wherein each shot must be fired in 50

second. Thereafter, the lowest-ranked athlete is eliminated

after every 2 shots. Thus, the last 2 shots decide the gold

medal winner. A shoot-off decides the final winner if the

score between the last two shooters left in the field is a tie.

Olympic shooting includes five different pistol events:

10m Air Pistol Men, 10m Air Pistol Women, 50m Pistol

Men, 25m Pistol Women, 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men.

For the 10 m Air Pistol events, athletes use air pistols

GP CAPT ACHCHYUT KUMAR

S

ometime in the 80s, I had

written an article in this same

column titled, ‘Why We Fail in

Sports.’ Things then for Indian

sports were not as pleasant as they

are today. One of my points was

that we are unable to compete in

such sports where an individual’s

physical size or strength becomes

extremely important. Thus, my

recommendations were that what

we need to compete in such sports

where physical strength takes a back

seat like shooting, archery, chess,

billiards and the like or where the

competition is between physically

equals like boxing and wrestling.

One teenager who seems to be

proving my contention in recent

times is seventeen-year-old Saurabh

Chaudhary from Uttar Pradesh.

A farmer’s son, once again,

Saurabh is yet another talent that comes from a family

which is far from any affluence. This seems to be a new

trend in Indian sports where a fresh sporting talent seems

to be emerging from among the teenagers of the not-

so-affluent class. Maybe it is the lack of affluence which

is an impetus for such youngsters to put in that extra

effort required to realize their dreams. Whatever be the

underlining reason, Indian sport seems to be the gainer.

Born on 11 May 2002 in Kalina village of the Meerut

district of Uttar Pradesh, Saurabh has impressed one and

all not only by winning gold medals but also creating

new world records. The Binauli Range in Baghpat

District is where Saurabh has been coached under Amit

Sheoran. The young shooter has had to travel 15 km each

way from his village to the range and back to complete

his practice sessions that have finally brought him the

laurels that he rightly deserves. With the passage of time,

Saurabh seems to have monopolised the 10-metre air

pistol event.

Since shooting is not a widely-followed sport, it would

not be out of place to mention a few facts about the

sports which will help the readers understand as to how